CNN
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Former President Donald TrumpHis legal team has turned over classified documents and an aide’s laptop to federal prosecutors in recent months, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.
Trump’s lawyers also handed over an empty folder marked “Classified Evening Summary,” the sources said.
The previously undisclosed transfers – from December and January – suggest that the Justice Department’s lengthy effort to retrieve records from Trump’s presidency may not be up for grabs.
Trump’s lawyers discovered the classified documents in December, while rummaging through boxes at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence. The lawyers then handed them over to the Justice Department.
A Trump aide had previously copied similar documents onto USB drives and laptops without realizing they had been classified. The laptop belonged to an aide working for Save America PAC and the USB drive was also given to investigators in January.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, which is pursuing possible criminal charges related to Trump’s handling of national security and obstruction of justice records, has subpoenaed Trump on May of last year about all the classified files in his possession.
FBI agents seized classified documents and other presidential files during a raid last August. The Trump team also found Additional documents in a Florida archive and hand them over to the FBI.
The discovery of two classified documents in the archives came after a team hired by Trump’s lawyers searched it along with three other Trump properties: Trump Tower in New York, the club Bedminster golf set and an office in Florida.
Those four searches come as the Justice Department remains concerned that not all documents from Trump’s time in the White House have been returned to the federal government.
This story has been updated with additional details.
